Dairy Digest turns 100 with rhyming podcast

A popular Purdue Extension dairy podcast has turned 100 with a fun, rhyming episode to commemorate the milestone.

"Purdue Dairy Digest" is a free, weekly podcast series created by three Purdue University animal scientists that covers a range of topics directed at dairy farmers, as well as information for a more general audience.

Since its inception on June 16, 2010, the podcast has covered hot topics, such as breeding, animal health, grazing, milk quality, milk prices and farm management. The 100th episode features Purdue Extension dairy specialists Tamilee Nennich and Mike Schutz giving a rhyming, two-minute summary of the past two years. It, along with the entire series, is available at http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/dd/ and also is a featured podcast on iTunes.

"One thing that's nice is that we're able to cover a lot of topics, from transition cow issues and milk quality to harvesting forages and feed prices," Nennich said. "We range from very broad topics to very specific topics."

While the 100th episode is a celebration, Nennich said there are plenty of more serious topics slated for the coming weeks.

"Milk prices declined over the past few months, but we still have high feed prices, so we will be highlighting ways to manage that situation," she said.

With Indiana in the midst of the most serious drought since 1988, Nennich also said coming episodes will focus on strategies to help producers manage their farms as efficiently as possible.